i will be the cat crying outside the door
that keeps the rest of things
together
The regatta winds its way downtown
You are somewhere in the crowd on shore
On the other side of the harbor on a park bench I’m alone –
All this for you
I forgo a better view
so you can experience it alone
To experience it
alone
from the good work.
This is the way it ends I’m going to be
honest.
A low-pressure trough over interior California
will persist through Sunday.
Tonight and tomorrow the swells slowly weaken.
I have taken my celestial barge and docked
at Point Conception.
I must avoid prolonged activity
due to exposure.
to listen to grass is not an excuse to lie down. it is
to hear the green chirp
and feel dirt. when dirt is heard a backyard crust will preserve
only dead puppies today
all the ones going we put in black plastic bags
heavy thuds into requiem
these rigor mortis dogs from the highway
in Drama incessant crying is childhood
my papaw
i know him through gestures guesses the aftermath of breakfast
cleaning plates
ice cold fruit
fishing lines brown water
his mysterious desk and a pen
which drained ink off bathing suits
naked ladies appeared
when you held it upside down
an eagle tattoo on his arm and a closet
too small to hold any decent man’s belongings
jammed full of his
into any of her mother’s dresses.
She’d go in the closet
eye the garments, breathing hot breath on them
like silk
watch the fabric beneath her fingers,
those darn dresses
those darn beautiful dresses.
Zipping up she squeezed
first — her breath then –
her chest
nothing would ever zip.
Once she ate a grape all day only a grape
nothing zipped.
Josephine Rosalie would never fit
into any of those dresses
those darn dresses
those darn beautiful dresses.
She could
wear the false jewelry matter of fact
she’d prefer tape it to the body.
This is surgery.
Surgery is more important than fitting in things that don’t fit
like fancy old dresses or shoes
so she’d handle Mamaw’s surgeries in a toy room with a trophy case.
The surgeries were mostly brain, heart, sometimes a limb.
Rhinestone sutures, letter opener
rows of fake pearls held in place by a bandage.
Buttons spilling out once in a while
when somebody moved.
It is important not to move.
Do not disturb the stitches!
Try not to laugh.
But most importantly
do not move.
look i’m a show you a single stitch
anything you can do in the car
well i just make it up
it’s still moving in the same direction
i have two eyes!
why does it know which direction it’s going
it just does, i don’t know
why does it know
i think it knows
sweetheart
here let me show you
you never go in the first, you go in the second. i’m pulling
but this one I’m pulling up
and back
see
i bring this around back over see it’s beautiful! i’ve taken the sash from the window.
you go in go in pull it through see
and you weave you weave you weave
it’s the hook one time go in go in
and this is my favorite part
erotic table design indefinitely i open